Im Still Here: Black Dignity in a World made for Whiteness

I'm struggling to write a review for this book. I think it's because this message is so important and I want to properly convey how much I was impacted by it. This book is small but POWERFUL, and I learned so much from Austin and her story.

I grew up white, Christian, and conservative. I think my jaw was dropped the entire time I was reading this because I had heard almost none of this in my upbringing. And it made me mad. How DARE we, as white people, tell Black people what their own lived experience has been?! That's absurd. So this book is important because Austin is a Black woman telling of her own experience living in predominantly white spaces.

She shares her experience of having a name most people would assume belongs to a white man, seeing the reactions of people finding out she's not a white man. She shares her experiences of being a Black woman at work, at church, as a child, teaching classes on racism, and so much more. I didn't know the extent to which racism is embedded in our society, and I am appalled. I am also committed to change.

This is what we need to do to begin to fight against racism and racial injustices: listen and learn from people who are living in the reality of it. I intend to do so from now on. May I never stop learning; may I never stop trying to fight racism in myself and around me. I want more people to read this book- it changed me.